Staff profile

I am a PhD candidate in Chinese History. My thesis examines how menstruation and the menstruating bodies have been governed in the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to the 1990s. Rather than treating menstruation as a purely biological process, I approach it as a historically constructed site through which women’s bodies, labour, and reproductive capacities have been regulated through public health initiatives, political campaigns, and everyday practices. My research is based on archival materials, oral history interviews, and medical and women's periodicals. It explores how menstruation and women’s embodied experiences were shaped by socialist welfare institutions, state investigations, and later processes of menstrual products and consumerism. By tracing these shifts, my work contributes to the history of gender, public hygiene, and technology in modern and contemporary China, while engaging with broader discussions of biopolitics and socialist governance.

I was a visiting student at the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica in July-August 2026, where I conducted research on the transformation of menstrual hygiene in modern China.

Presentations:

“Managing Bleeding: Menstruation and Women’s Regulated Bodies in 20th Century China”, at British Association for Chinese Studies 2025 Annual Conference, University of Leicester, 3 September 2025.

“For Him or For Me?: Contraceptive Diaphragms, Menstrual Discs, and the Politics of Vaginal Technologies in Twentieth-Century China and Beyond”, at Oxford International History of East Asia Seminar, University of Oxford, 26 November 2025.

“Absorption vs Outflow: Technopolitics and Medical Logics of Four Menstrual Products in Contemporary China”, at Centre of the History of Science Technology and Medicine Seminar, University of Manchester, 3 March 2026.

“Beyond the Iron Girls: An Oral History of Menstrual Experiences and Embodied Femininity in Cultural Revolution China”, at Global China Studies Early Career Researcher Network 2026 Annual Conference, University of York, 17 July 2026.

“Governing the Female Body in Everyday Work: Menstrual Labour Protection in Socialist China (1949-1961)”, at British Association for Chinese Studies 2026 Annual Conference, University of Lancaster, 3 September 2026.

“Gendering Thermoregulation in Contemporary China”, at ‘Carbon Bodies’: Investigating the Intersections between Energy and Health Histories Workshop, Northumbria University, 11 September 2026 (Co-presented with Christopher Courtney).

For further information or collaboration, please contact me at ruoyu.jia@durham.ac.uk

• Menstruation
• Women's Studies
• Feminine Technology
• China under Mao